Pipe On Skype!

I must find out who Nick Luck's scriptwriters are..whoever they are, I like them!  You may have seen David's interview this morning over the webcam on The Morning Line.  Dry as a bone Luck introduced David as "Pipe on Skype!"  He was only on for a couple of minutes, but following the abortive efforts to get hold of Nigel Twiston-Davies from practically next door a couple of weeks ago, I was pleased to see the technology working for a change!

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I thought that Notus de la Tour ran a great race in the rescheduled Totesport Trophy at Newbury yesterday afternoon.  He put up a bold front-running performance and kept going really well to finish beaten just under two lengths into third place, netting the owners £6,000 in prize money.  David said afterwards that he would head next for the Coral Cup at the Cheltenham Festival - I expect a rise in the weights from the handicapper beckons, and it will be interesting to see how he fares over the longer trip of 2m5f next month.

Ericht was the impressive winner of the bumper on the card yesterday.  He has now won two of his three starts and was only beaten in the other as his jockey gave the leader too much rope and I reckon we will be seeing him in the Festival bumper.

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Young Joseph O'Brien come over to Linfield this afternoon for three rides on the all-weather for James McAuley.  Joseph, son of Irish champion trainer Aidan was the joint winner of the Irish apprentices' championship last season (in a three way tie).  I am sure that he is going to get bigger as he gets a bit older and he could struggle with his weight on the flat - it is a shame when you consider that his father is one of the best trainers in the world

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Down on the gallops, we schooled a few yesterday and below we have a picture of Spirit Of Barbados in action alongside Choumakeur.  As you can see, they both jumped very nicely.

Above (l-r) Spirit Of Barbados and Choumakeur in action over hurdles